Friday, 25 November 2016

It's new release time over at Julia Spiri and I just love this weeks image. She is called Exotic Flowers and you can find her here. This was so much fun to colour and really brightened up an otherwise dreary November day.

Julia has very kindly put a Black Friday offer in place for her too!

We always love to see what yo create with your Julia Spiri digis so why not pop across to her Facebook group too and share your wonderful creations and join in the chat. And don't forget there is also a monthly challenge over on the blog if you enjoy blogging your work.

Monday, 7 November 2016

Like it or not, Christmas is coming to get us and soon. I'm nowhere near prepared for it this year, it's kind of snuck up on me when I wasn't looking, so I am now on a mission to get my butt in gear and start some preparations. Every year I want to treat myself to new decorations, and every year I end up deciding to save my pennies and stick with the old ones, so this year I am going to try to make some. Much nicer than shop bought after all, and cheaper too!

My first hand made decoration is a monolith from Visible Image. I had so much fun making this at the weekend and it almost put me in a festive mood! All stamps on it are also from Visible Image too of course ( I do have a slight addiction to them!) .

I am really pleased with the way it turned out and can't wait to see it really sparkle amid the Christmas lights.

Sunday, 6 November 2016

I was so thrilled last week to hear the happy news that my beautiful niece Kerri and her fella Mark are, after 7 years together, now officially engaged. It's been long awaited I can tell you, so I am glad Mark has finally popped a ring on her finger, and what a beautiful ring it is too! They really do make a wonderful couple and I wish them all the happiness in the world for their life together.

Of course no such occasion can go unmarked with a card, and I just couldn't resist using this gorgeous fairy stencil from Sweet Poppy Stencils. Isn't it just the sweetest image for a young couple? I teamed it with some stamps from Lavinia Stamps to create a pretty scene, and added some stickles and perfect pearls to accent the details.

Nothing beats going back to your childhood and spending some time throwing paint around with your sister and recently I did just that, with my older sister Tina. Tina is a professional photographer ( and a pretty amazing one at that - check out her work on her website here), and every so often she likes to throw a creative challenge my way, making props for her studio shoots.

She traveled to me a couple of weeks ago, armed with over sized book shaped constructions, put together by her husband, and our mission was to turn them into giant story books for children. We took over my conservatory and set to work!

Tina was working on a pirate story book, and the theme for mine was to be fairy tales.

Step one was to add some texture to the 'book' , which I did by covering it with tissue paper.

While that dried I cut a castle and lettering from SVG files on my Cameo, and arranged the basic image out to check I was happy.

The entire book was then covered with white gesso.

I created some trees hanging over the castle with texture paste and a mask, then I used my fingers to apply acrylic paint , in blues, purples and pinks, and shimmering cream for highlights. When that was dry I sprayed areas with cosmic shimmer spray to really make it magical and shimmery. I painted my castle, cut and stamped pillars and a sweeping driveway, and once I had stuck it to the book I used hot glue to edge around it, creating definition to the turrets, and covered the glue with gilding wax, which I think it made it look a little like an ice palace don't you?

I defined the tree branches with a grey marker, and added Nuvo Drops as berries. I love this drops, so easy to use and the colours are beautiful!

Every castle needs a hero and a princess of course, and I had the perfect stamps in my stash, made by Visible Image. The brick work stamp I used was also from them ( I have a bit of an obsession and rather a large collection!). In this story my princess is about to be snatched by a dragon, but her heroic beau will not doubt come to the rescue!

I have to admit, I am thrilled with how the finished project turned out and I can't wait to see Tina how works her own magic in her studio with it. There's no rest for me though now my work is done - I went to visit her last week ( where she put me to work making santa hats!!) and she sent me home with another book to work on for her. Can't wait to get started!